I’m going to ask you a very simple question and I want you to answer it as honestly and in as much detail as you can. Okay….are you ready for it? Here it is. How do you pick an apple?

I know….tough question right? So take a moment to think about it.

So what was your answer? Just for fun, let’s see how you measure up to the answers of others. The most common answer to this question would go something like this: Well, I stand under the tree. I reach out with my arm, open my hand, grasp the apple firmly and yank the apple downward. That my friend, is how I pick an apple!

So was that somewhere close to your answer or were you a bit more analytical in the exact same process? Maybe your answer wasn’t even anywhere close to the same. Maybe yours involved a longer process, the true process of picking an apple.

So here’s the correct way to pick an apple:

You pick a spot of land. Preferably on your own land.

You dig a hole.

You buy the tree.

You put the tree in the hole.

You water the tree.

You fertilize the tree.

You brace the tree up to protect it from the wind.

You put a fence around the tree to protect it from wildlife, such as Elk and Deer.

You spray it with chemicals to protect it from insects.

You trim the tree from time to time.

You then repeat steps 5 and 6, until one day, your tree finally produces apples.

You then, stand under your tree, reach out and pick the apple!

That, my friends, is the way to pick an apple! Would it have been easier if I had given you another question as an example, such as: How do you become wealthy? You don’t just reach out an grab the money. There is a process that comes before you “pick the apple”, or get the money.

So many people, in fact the majority of people, prefer to just simply “pick the apple.” They want someone else to take care of the “process” for them, which is exactly why most people will never get to pick the apple or become wealthy. You can’t just skip to the end. That’s a fairytale. Luckily, with modernization and grocery stores, we have people who take care of “process” so that we don’t technically have to pick the apple. That’s their way to create wealth and unfortunately, you can’t just pick up a box of wealth at the store like you can an apple. You must go through the process of creating wealth for yourself.

I teach others how to go through the process, but you must be willing to put in the time and effort before you can reap the reward. But, the process is proven….meaning, it works. I, along with thousands of others, have done it. It’s a lot like picking an apple, but with a few more steps along the way. If you can follow steps, bring a little creativity and a lot of ambition, you too can become wealthy!

One thing we have going for us as humans is our own ability to create something out of thin air. Especially when it comes to our time. We have the ability and resources to spend it in an array of ways. How we spend it has a direct reflection on our results in life. If someone isn’t getting their desired results in life, chances are, they just simple aren’t spending their time doing the things they must do to get the result. The hard part for people is knowing how to change the way they spend their time. It’s so easy not to change, right?

My point is….so many people have time working against them instead of for them. It seems that most people are in a hurry to die, to put it bluntly. The sooner they get off work the better, the quicker the day goes by the better, the faster the time goes by so that they can sit there on their couch, the better. Most people want time to fly by and in my experience, thinking of all the times that I wanted time to fly by, these were the times when I was most miserable. I was either at a job I hated, with someone I didn’t enjoy being with, terribly sick, in pain or just flat out sick and tired.

These were the moments in my life that I wanted my time to go faster. These were the times that I wanted to speed up time and literally get closer to my end. I wanted time to pass by faster, I wanted to waste that time just to spare myself of the misery I was experiencing at the moment. I wanted to get older, just by a small bit, so that I could move on with doing what I wanted to do and enjoyed doing. In doing so, I wasted a small section of my life…..a section that I will NEVER get back. Your TIME is your LIFE. It’s a simple concept….if you waste your time, you waste your life.

Don’t Waste Your Life

So let me ask you a question: Who in their right mind wants their life to pass by quicker? Who, having a sane mind, wants to die sooner? Because that’s basically what you’re doing when you spend your time doing what you can’t stand to do, hoping it passes by quicker. Now, fifteen minutes of time wasted at your job may not seem like you are wasting your life, but what is fifteen minutes multiplied by five or six days out of the week times 52 weeks in a year times the number of years you have been wasting 15 minutes a day. That adds up to a lot of wasted time, doing something you cannot stand to do. And if you are just working that job or business just for a paycheck and get no personal satisfaction or enjoyment from it, what are you doing?

So let me rephrase the question: Who in their right mind, who is following their passions in life, wants their life to pass by quicker? Who, having a sane mind and is living life to it’s fullest, wants to die sooner?

So how do you live life to it’s fullest or at least know you are? Here are a few questions for you:

Is there something you have wanted to do for a while but haven’t taken the action?

Do you feel like you should be doing something more with your life?

Do you hate your job?

Do you feel like you are just going through the motions just so the time will pass by?

Do you find yourself thinking of all the great things you could have done in your life up to this point?

These are just a few questions and if you answered YES to any of them, chances are, you are not living your life to the fullest. My suggestion to you: Time is ticking, get to it!

We have all heard of the people that say their biggest desire in life is to live “The Simple Life.” Not much responsibility, worry or care, just simply them and what they love the most. Out of all they have experienced in life, their truest desire is to live simple, to get away from the hustle and bustle of the world. That’s the simple life!

Living the Simple Life

I think that living “the simple life” has different meanings for different people. I have personally had conversations with people that say their idea of a simple life is living like a hermit in the mountains without clocks, a schedule or even a wife. Just them, nature, maybe a dog and no where to be. The more common idea of living the simple life is to own a home in a suburb somewhere, have a few kids, a mortgage, a dog and a white picket fence.

I just asked my wife what her idea of a simple life would be and she said, “My idea of a simple life would be to live on the beach, in a hut with clothes made out of hemp, bathe in the ocean and just lay out all day!” I think her idea of the simple life wins the golden nugget for today! I wouldn’t think that hemp clothes would be that comfortable but obviously she is a beach bum at heart!

The word simple means, easy or not complicated. So the simple life is plainly a life that is easy, or not complicated. It is a life without much worry or stress, a life of simplicity. Although life can be complicated by nature, it is our choices that make it that way. We create our lifestyle. We either are the cause of our simple life or the cause of our miserable and complicated life.

My idea of the simple life involves a few key words. It involves financial freedom, so that the worries of bills, mortgages, rent, basic necessities of life, gas for my car or anything else that requires money will not be in my simple life. It involves complete time freedom. I mean the ability to choose for myself the schedule of the day, which is never set in stone and always subject to change. It involves service, the ability to give, teach and inspire those in need. It involves pursuing my hobbies and passions. It involves my family right along side me every step of the way.

That’s the simple life and in order to ensure that I have all those key elements in place, I have got to make key decisions right now that lead me closer to the simple life and the more I think about it, I am mostly there!

Know this, 9 out of 10 people who read this post will statistically NEVER reach their ideal lifestyle. They will never live their version of the simple life. Believe it or not but it’s true! Most people grow old wishing they had done things differently. They wish that had purchased that land or they wish they would have started that business. Your life can and will be just as you plan it to be if you choose to do so starting today. So tell me, are you hanging out with the nine……or are you the one?

I think it is fair to say that in order to grow or progress in an accelerated rate, one must get into the habit of taking risks. Am I right? Without risk, how can there be victory? How can one experience a win? Think about it. The person who reaches the top of Mount Everest doesn’t do so by not taking risks. The child who is just learning to walk doesn’t learn without the possibility that he might fall and hurt himself. Starting a business involves taking an initial risk right up front and then taking consistent risks on a regular basis. Every decision made has a level of risk to it. The degree of the reward most likely depends on the degree of the risk. The greater the risk the greater the reward.

Have you ever looked at someone who was extremely successful in business and thought that everything must have been as smooth as can be for that person? If you’re in a home based business, have you ever looked at the top income earners and thought, “Man, they just had the money sitting around to get started and everything was so easy for them?” Be honest! I know most of you have. I can tell you this much, you are absolutely wrong. Ninety percent of the time, it was a rough, risky, faith teetering journey for them. I know it was for me!

If you look at starting a business, whether traditional or home based, there are start up costs. Every legitimate business will have costs. Don’t ever expect to get started in your own business without forking out some money. Most people do not, I repeat, do not have the capital to get started. That’s why most people aren’t successful entrepreneurs. There’s risk involved right!? People run at the sound of risk. Well, most people do, but not the successful ones. They step up to the challenge and use what resources they have available to them to get to where they want to be.

A resource is anything of value that can be used or sold, available source of wealth, a new or reserve supply that can be drawn upon when needed.

Most people actually think that they don’t have these so called “resources!” You do! When we got started, we required a good amount of revenue. We were short in income every month as it was, how would David Allred come up with the money? I used my resources. What were my resources? I had stuff! I sold my jeep and made it happen. Did I love my jeep, YES! But what was I more passionate about? My jeep or my goals of financial freedom? My goals of course, so away with the jeep. Later on down the road we decided to take our business to the next level and required more funding. We looked to our resources again and saw that we had credit! What were we more passionate about? Zero debt or our goals of financial freedom? Financial Freedom!

Now, a few days ago I wrote a blog post on what it takes to be a Big Thinker. A Big Thinker has a different outlook than most people when it comes to making things happen. It’s just the way we think. Big Thinkers, leaders and successful entrepreneurs see 401K’s, credit cards, jeeps, cars, homes, savings accounts and banks as part of their own personal resource center. These are all things that we can use to propel our success. Sure, there is risk in using our resources, but what are you going to do, look at them and think to yourself, “Wow, those are some nice resources!” Do you want to set your 401K up on your mantle, all nice and pretty so that one day, one glorious day you can use it in your retirement. I’ve got a much better retirement plan than what a 401k can provide and you should too.

Everyone else views all of these things as their so called “Safety Nets!” These are things to fall back on in case things get worse. So what do they do? They hang on to them, save them, store them, don’t even think of them as being a tool that will move them closer to their dreams. So these resources just sit there, un-resourceful and useless.

So what are these things to you? Are they safety nets or resources?

In my eyes, one day lived passionately following my dreams is better than a thousand days lived wishing I would have! Use the many resources you have to make that happen!

What is a phrase or term that can be used in both praising someone and insulting someone depending on the circumstance? When spoken, most people really don’t understand what it means. They think they do, but really don’t. Sometimes it is a term used in conjunction with and has virtually the same meaning as “Think outside the box.” It is something that defines those who succeed and used to educate those who have not yet succeeded. It is a concept, that if truly understood, could propel anyone to new levels in business and life. It is something that some people are just born with and others can work to become. It is a title, a status.

No literally! It’s a title, the title of this post, “Big Thinker.” Not only is it a title for this post, but is also a title for the leaders in every industry in the world. In order to truly experience the level of success you dream about and have envisioned for yourself, you MUST become a BIG Thinker. I capitalize it for what it represents.

Are you a Big Thinker?

Let’s put it in black and white, simple to understand terms for everyone else out there like me, simple minded. It’s two words. Big + Thinker. So, in order to be a thinker, you must use your brain and produce what every person in this world is capable of producing, a thought! Not just any thought though. It’s easy to have a thought pop into your head. Every time you look at something a thought enters your head. A true thinker produces his or her own thoughts. They don’t require an outside source to spark and idea. They just come up with random, creative thoughts and they entertain those thoughts. After a while of entertaining those thoughts, BAM, they get an idea. An idea is something that can be put into action.

The definition of “Big” is: Of considerable size, number, quantity, magnitude, or extent. So a Big Thinker is thinking at a considerable size, number, quantity, magnitude or extent. In other words, normal thinking is me, Big Thinking is Andre the giant. Normal thinking is having enough money to make your bills. Big Thinking is Financial Freedom.

So here are three ways that you can determine whether or not you are a big thinker:

When you see someone do something amazing, do you think that person is just amazing, or do you think to yourself, “If they can do it, I can!”

Do you constantly rely on others to bail you out, help you out, give you ideas or do things for you…..or do you have others calling you for those same reasons?

Do you find yourself overly excited about things that haven’t even happened yet or can you even see past the here and now, dwelling on and constantly think about your current situation.

Do you view the cup as half empty or half full?

Do you call your mentors to bounce around ideas you have or do you call expecting them to give it all to you, when in reality, all you get is a bunch of dead air?

So what are you? Once you have arrived at the status of being a Big Thinker, it rolls into every aspect of your business, and your life. It is a constant thing. It is a change in the way you think. You can’t just turn it off when you want, it’s you. It’s the way you operate. I believe it was Oliver Wendell Holmes that said, “The mind, once expanded to the dimensions of larger ideas, never returns to it’s original size.” Once a Big Thinker, always a Big Thinker!

I think there may be a little confusion as to what the term, “Time Freedom,” really is. So many people are seeking it, yet very few really find it. Time Freedom is a concept. It’s a lifestyle and so much more. It’s what allows Fathers to truly be a powerful influence in the lives of their children. It makes it possible for mothers to really and actually be the “Stay at home Mom!” It’s the freedom that allows you to persue your dreams, hobbies and ambitions without restraint. It is probably the most sought after thing in the world.

A lot of people associate Time Freedom with Financial Freedom. Financial Freedom can be obtained while taking all of your free time to obtain it. So many sacrifice their time freedom to get the financial freedom. On the flipside of the coin, a bum has all the time freedom in the world yet, no money! So you can have one without the other.

The big difference is, you can always get more money, but can never really get more time. The clock of life is ticking and when the batteries run out, our time to make a difference in this world is over. The ideal lifestyle is to have them both. Have the money and the time to enjoy it!

Here are a few things that are NOT Time Freedom, just to be clear:

2 weeks of paid vacation from your employer.

Weekends off from your business or employer.

Only having to work 40 hours a week.

2 or 3 hours in the evenings to devote to family time and hobbies.

Summers off, as most teachers get.

The ability to take a day off here or there or swap work days for a family event.

Having Sick Days!

Now that there is zero confusion, time freedom is a very simple thing to define, and it means doing whatever you want, whenever you want, however you want, or just not doing it at all, if you don’t want. That’s it! True time freedom is being in complete control of your day. No boss to take orders from, no schedule to rule your day, no job to take you away from your true passions, no business that robs you of your personal life. It’s having complete and absolute control. If you wake up in the morning and feel like taking a drive out of town with your family, you do it. If you feel like not working at all that day, it’s your choice.

Now the trick is to be able to do all that you want to do, while still having the income flowing in. Wouldn’t it be great if there were a simple way to get them both, Time Freedom and Financial Freedom? If I knew the way, or at least one of the many ways, would you be interested to know? And once you found out how I do it, and thousands of others have done it, will you believe that it can happen for you?